Enduring Pain
by act-then-pens
Summary: In the future Rumpel' is evil again and he has destroyed Storybrooke, killing and enslaving many of it's inhabitants. The story is his final battle with Emma and Regina which flashes back to see how he went down that path again after losing Belle.


The children's school lay in rubble, blood caked the side of buildings and fire was spreading through the town, unstoppable consuming every brick, plank of wood and blade of grass until Storybrooke's evisceration. Ignoring it all Emma Swan walk down the street call out Rumpelstiltskin. As she called it, as he came.

'What is it dearie? You sound agitated' Rumpelstiltskin nonchalantly asked, letting out a quite chuckle

'Why are you doing this? You killed Hook, I understand.' Emma said 'But why everything else. Why Belle? Snow, Smee? Why have you desolated this town'

'I have my reasons'

'That doesn't explain anything'

'I thought you called me out for a fight, the saviour vs. the dark one, but if you insist. I realised "it doesn't matter"'

'It's you, stay away from me' Belle said when she saw Rumpelstiltskin.

Rumpelstiltskin shrunk under that look she gave him, that look of fear. It broke his heart every time he saw it, and he saw it every time she looked upon him.

'Belle please, I mean Sarah, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm here to help you'

'To help me?'

'You may not know this, but I am the patronage of the library, where until recently you worked and I'm here to offer you your job back'

'Me? I have always wanted to work at a library. I do love to read.'

'I know'

'How do you know? You talk like you know me but I don't think I want to know you.'

'Belle please'

'My name is not Belle, my name is Sarah. You call me by my name or not at all’

'Sarah'

'I'm Sorry, Mr… I don't know your name'

'it's… it's Mr Gold, David'

'Mr Gold. Thank you, Mr Gold, for your kind offer however I cannot work for you'

'Why not?'

'Because… because the first thing I remember in this world is you, you trying to kill someone, you had conjured a ball of fire in your hand, that is something to fear, someone to fear. My mother told me to stay away from strangers and you are more that passing strange.'

'Your Mother… you don't even have a Mother, it's an illusion'

'I am not delusional, I am not crazy. Leave me be, I have told you my wishes, now leave me

Emma produced a dagger from her coat 'Ok Rumpelstiltskin' she said 'we fight'

'Ah the dagger, you found it' Rumpelstiltskin intoned 'I knew you would Miss Swan. You're so resourceful. I suppose know I get what's coming for me'

'Not yet, you can choose to come quietly'

'Come quietly but I love making such a noise, I'd imagine your screams will make quite a racket.'

'Fine you've chosen death'

Rumpelstiltskin let out an hysterical laugh.

'ey you've got the dagger, but you don't know how to use it'

'You use the pointy end'

'Well then I guess it's your mighty dagger against my puny magic. I wonder who will win?

'You can't win'

'We've already been over this, dearie'

"You won't harm her' another voice spoketh from the ruins

'Ah Regina. I see you've joined in. Well I see how you might now have a small chance of success'

Yet before he had even stopped talking he had sent a spell at Regina, which she blocked. Then smoke appeared around Rumpelstiltskin thickening into vines, whose thorns pierced his skin. However they became brittle crumbling to powder under his fist.'

'That the best you got, dearie?'

'I told you I didn't want to see you' Belle said angrily when she saw Rumpelstiltskin again on opening her door.

'And you won't,' Rumpel' replied hastily, 'that's why I've come, to give you what you ask of me'

'What'

'You are going to purchase the Library from me'

'But I don't have any money'

'I believe you can afford a single dollar'

'One dollar'

'That's right'

'Why would you do this? What do you want in return?

'I want nothing in return. The truth is the library is costing me money, I cannot afford to keep it running and the only viable option is to give it away. In fact I should probably pay to take it of my hands'

'So your overcharging me and I shouldn't be tanking you at all. Instead I should be complaining'

'That's about right, so sign here and it's yours'

'Well thank you anyway’

'it's my pleasure'

'I still don't know if I can accept this'

"You can and you will. In fact I believe you already have, that's your signature'

'What is it you want…'

…nothing, only to honour your wishes without taking anything from you. The Library is yours, it always has been’

'Well thank you again'

'Again your welcome'

'I actually don't have a dollar to pay you with right now. Shall we say I'll owe you'

'I'll consider us even'

'Were evenly matched Rumpelstiltskin' Regina shouted, crouched low holding a stitch, exhausted as she was.

'I think you'll find I'm winning, my dear. You look like your about to drop dead and soon you will' Rumpelstiltskin replied calmly, sounding even if he was enjoying himself.

It started up again the blistering of lights and noise, the crashing, screaming and the crocking of one watching frog.

Then Emma saw a tree growing from the ground it's thick branched ensnaring Rumpelstiltskin' but they where already withering away before they could take hold of Rumpelstiltskin'.

'Is that it Regina, you'll never…' Suddenly Rumpelstiltskin stopped in his insult and staggered forward and there it was, the dagger in his back.

'I need your help Dr.' Rumpelstiltskin ask Jiminy

'What is the problem?' he asked

'I'm having trouble sleeping'

'Surely you could try…'

'…I can't put myself under an enchanted sleep'

'That's not want I was going to say. I was going to suggest valerian root or some sleeping pills'

'I have been' Rumpelstiltskin' replied 'However I only sleep for a couple of hours every night, at most'

'Why is that, do you think?

'Because I can't get to sleep. I only came here so I could get stronger medication to help me sleep.'

'Well I can't give you a prescription without a diagnosis'

'It's a sleeping disorder, there I've cracked it'

'Mr Gold…'

'…need I remind you I could just steal what I needed, It wouldn't be difficult'

'No, you don't need you could, which is why I ask myself why you came to me. Is it just for medication…'

'…yes'

'But you could steal that, as you say'

'And have the good sheriff on my back?'

'Would she even find out. Why don't you start by telling me how you fell when you can't sleep'

'It's difficult to explain. I suppose I feel exhausted yet I can't rest. I'm thinking of nothing. I'm empty. Yet I'm not. There's something in the back ground of my thoughts, but I can't reach it'

'What do you think it is you can't reach?'

'I don't know, I can't reach it' Rumpel' said irritably

'But how does it feel when you try to reach it?'

'I don't know, I'm not trying to reach it'

'Would you say your trying not to reach it? To suppress it?

'Yes I suppose to you could say that. I want to go to sleep, I don't want to think which is why I need the sleeping pills.'

'You said you felt 'empty' and thought 'nothing'. Yet thinking nothing is an active process.' Jiminy queried 'Your exhausted, do you think your energy is needed to suppress those thoughts you don't want? Is that why you can't sleep? You have to stay awake to guard yourself from your thoughts'

'You've cracked it, such insight you have, just want I'd expect from someone who got their doctorate from a curse'

Rumpelstiltskin had got up to leave.

'You shouldn't leave' Jiminy franticly stated to Mr Gold.

'Why not?' he blithely asked

'I haven't given you your prescription'

'So now you're going to give me a prescription'

'Yes, just sit down while I find my pad. I have it here somewhere. Here is it'

Rumpelstiltskin had sat whilst Jiminy looked for his pad and he seemed more relaxed.

'Just one more question' Jiminy said 'is there any other time that you feel this way. Where you're trying to suppress something?'

'No, can I have my prescription'

'First I just need to know how long you've been unable to sleep'

'A few months'

'After you tried to get Belle back…'

'…A spell after. Why… Why are you doing this to me?' Rumpelstiltskin looked like he was in agony and the beast wounded was angry 'I feel it every time I look on Belle, when I see her walking past my window, when I catch a glimpse of her on the street, whenever a thought of her passes through my mind. And those rare times she looks at me. That look on her face.'

'What look?'

'Of apathy. The realisation came to me It doesn't matter'

Rumpelstiltskin' lies dead on the street, the street desiccated by weeks of his wrath. Clouds crawl over the town and rain begins to fall, dousing the fire out. Washing clean everything.

'You did it' Regina spoke solemnly.

'I did'

Emma looked up from his body and saw the rain as it poured on the school so too did it rebuild it. The fire that raged over the town hall went out and all the people trapped inside ran free. Emma smiled.

'His spells are broken everything's returning back to normal' she said to Regina'

However Regina didn't look pleased, she looked almost scared. 'That's not normal, the magic doesn't die when the caster dies'

'What do you mean?'

'This doesn't happen, something's wrong here. Unless Rumpelstiltskin' cast them in such away to be broken on his death'

They looked at each other, but something caught Emma's eye in the street, it was Snow standing soaked through. Snow alive, Snow safe. She ran to her calling her name and they embraced.

'Mary Margret, I thought you were dead, I thought Rumpelstiltskin had killed you'

'No he just turned me into a frog'

'But there was blood and your dress torn'

'I think he wanted you to think he'd killed me, I saw him after staging… Emma where are you going'

'I have to check something'

When she's heard what Snow had been saying she thought something was wrong and she needed to know. She ran to the library, drenched in rain she burst through the door and there she found her, Belle sitting in her library a little worse for wear but a live. Alive.

'I realised' Rumpel' said 'she doesn't love me but more so, she will never love me. No matter what I do, no matter how much I become a better man, no matter how much I endure with my love for her, she will never care for, she will never love me. It is that realisation I don't want to know. It's something I've known for a while now but recently it something I've begun to feel with my every waking consciousness. I cannot escape it and that is why I cannot sleep. The pain is unendurable and unending.'


End file.
